Maple Leafs Draft Review Part 1: 2015 draft class
Before the Toronto Maple Leafs make their selections in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, let’s take a look back at their most recent draft classes. We’ll start with 2015.
The 2018 NHL Entry Draft is two days away. It will be Kyle Dubas’ first draft as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is plenty of intrigue surrounding what he will do.
Before we see what he does, let’s look at what the Leafs have done in the past few years. This, the 2015 class, will be the first of three drafts we look at.
The 2015 Draft could go down as a pretty big one for the Leafs, as they already have two players who have seen time in the NHL, with potential for that number to grow. The Leafs did lose two players, though.
Let’s take a look back at the Leafs’ haul from 2015.
Mitch Marner
Drafted: 4th Overall (First Round)
Not much needs to be said about Marner. He spent one more season with the London Knights, one in which he won the Memorial Cup. He was the top scorer and won the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP.
What’s he done since joining the Leafs? Well, he has scored 41 goals and 130 points in 159 over his two seasons. It goes without saying that he will get even better as the seasons go on. With his two normal line-mates likely to leave in free agency, he will have to adjust but it shouldn’t effect him too much.
Travis Dermott
Drafted: 34th Overall (Second Round)
The Maple Leafs had two first-round picks going into the draft. They ended up trading back twice and actually ended up receiving their own second-rounder that they had previously traded away.
Dermott got his first chance with the Leafs last season after a season each with the Erie Otters and the Toronto Marlies. Once he was called up in December of last season, he didn’t give the Leafs the option to send him back down. He had a goal and 13 points in 37 regular season games and one goal in seven playoff games.
He returned to the Marlies after the Leafs were eliminated and won the Calder Cup with the team. Unless the Leafs make a few moves to acquire some defensemen in the offseason, Dermott should stick with the Leafs to start next season.
Jeremy Bracco
Drafted: 61st Overall (Second Round Pick)
If there’s one thing Bracco knows how to do at this point, it’s win. He won a Gold Medal at the World Under-18’s in 2015 and the World Junior Championship in 2017 with the United States. He followed up that Gold in 2017, with a Memorial Cup victory with the Windsor Spitfires. He then was with the Marlies when they won the Calder Cup.
He played 50 games in the regular season, where he had six goals and 32 points. He one goal in four playoff games but was squeezed out by the depth the Marlies had. With all the graduations that Marlies might have, Bracco’s should see more of a spotlight next season.
Andrew Nielsen
Drafted: 65th Overall (Third Round)
When Dermott and Nielsen were drafted, they looked to be much on the same level. While Dermott has risen, Nielsen has fallen on the Leafs depth chart. That’s not too say he was a bad pick. He is still a valuable piece on the Marlies, but he was simply pushed out because of depth.
He played 65 games in the regular season and had six goals and 26 points. He played in only eight playoff games and had one assist.
If he sees time with the Leafs, it won’t be anytime soon. Maybe as an injury call-up, but their are other players ahead of him.
Martins Dzierkals
Drafted: 68th Overall (Third Round)
Drafted out of his home country of Latvia, Dzierkals moved the the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL. He spent two seasons there, where he had 45 goals and 116 points in 106 total games. After his second season, he didn’t wan to return to junior and earned an AHL contract with the Marlies.
Dzierkals was another player that was effected by the depth on the Marlies and was actually sent down to the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears. He had 15 goals and 36 points in 51 games. He also had a goal and three points in seven playoff games. He was called up for four games with the Marlies but didn’t have any points. He should stick with the Marlies next season.
Jesper Lindgren
Drafted: 95th Overall (Fourth Round)
Lindgren spent his first two seasons post-draft playing in Sweden before moving to HPK Hameenlinna of the SM-liiga. The defenseman had two goals and eight points in 43 games this season. He was added to the Marlies on an amateur tryout contract for the second consecutive season, but didn’t make it into a game two seasons ago. He played four games for the Marlies last season and had one assist.
He could join the Marlies next season depending on what happens with other players.
Dmytro Timashov
Drafted: 125th Overall (Fifth Round)
He split his first post-draft season between the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts and Shawinigan Cataractes. He moved on to the Marlies for the 2016-17 and has spent the past two seasons with the team.
After a 24-point season in his first year, he improved that to 34 points last season. He will be one if the biggest steals of the draft if he continues improving. With a bigger role on the Marlies next season, that should happen.
Stephen Desrocher
Drafted: 155th Overall (Sixth Round)
Drafted as a 19-year-old from the Oshawa Generals, he was traded to the Kingston Frontenacs after 17 games post-draft. He spent the rest of that season and the next in Kingston, where he served as captain in the 2016-17 season.
The Leafs didn’t sign him and he went undrafted last year. He played five games with the University of Western Ontario last season after participating in the Columbus Blue Jackets training camp last September.
Nikita Korostolev
Drafted: 185th Overall (Seventh Round)
Korostolev fell much further than anyone anticipated before the Leafs took him. While had three more productive seasons split between the Sarnia Sting and the Peterborough Petes, the Leafs also didn’t sign him last season. Although it might have had something to do with the Leafs’ contract situation at that point. He did participate in the Maple Leafs development camp last season after the Leafs lost his rights.
Next: Which Toronto Marlies will become Maple Leafs?
Korostolev was given an amateur tryout with the Laval Rocket in March and played 10 games to close out the season. He had a goal and an assist.